How do you make Python reliable???

[Bengt Richter]

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 23:52:29 -0500, "Aubrey Hutchison" <abhjrpe at comcast.net> wrote:

>Using Python 2,3,2 with idle for developing programs
>about 200 lines long. - Problem is not common to any specific program.
>Program are rather simple with no trick programming. Usually no classes but
>a few functions using math module with long integers.
>
>Usually for the first few tryout everything works fine and
>then idle locks "out" windows xp pro..  I can run other programs, but
>clicking on idle icon gets me an hour glass for a few moments and then goes
>away.
>
>Acts like I filled up memory but with 1 gig that should not
>be a problem.
>
>Word, Acad, quickbasic, and anyother program will work when python starts
>doing this lock out. But python will not work.  Killing the computer is the
>usual way out of the problem.
>
>Shuting down just get me a dialog window telling me to click to shut down
>windowmenu.  Which only gets me the
>same dialog a few moment later.
>
>Full power off is usually the only way, and at time upon reboot -the same
>will continue.
>
>When this happens I can load a game, Acad or word which work as they should.
>
>When this starts I get an indication the idle is not responding and I kill
>it with the status panel.Some times this happens only once but usually it
>ends up as a lock out.
>
>Computer is clean- no virus.
>
>Thanks for any help
>
The best way would be to provide a minimal recipe for duplicating your problem.
Otherwise we'll be playing 20 questions until someone gets an inspiration.

Meanwhile, when stuck, will Ctrl-C have any effect? If not, how about Ctrl-D
or Ctrl-Break?

I hardly ever run idle, but I just did, and I seem to have experienced a bit
of the same problem ;-(

I dimissed it with Ctrl-D after a Ctrl-C, and then when I tried to start it again
from the start menu (

I am on NT4 with python 2.3 something:

 >>> sys.version
 '2.3 (#46, Jul 29 2003, 18:54:32) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)]'
 >>> sys.version_info
 (2, 3, 0, 'final', 0)

) and it did not come up. Ctrl-Alt-Del gave me the security dialog that lets me run the
task manager, which I tried, and _it_ did not pop up. Normally it displaces almost anything.
This makes me wonder if idle is using something that runs at super high priority and forgets
to let go or lower its priority if it gets blocked. Eventually applications started to respond to
Alt-F4 (I had quite a few instances of vim and netstcape and a few console windows going plus
agent and eudora, so it's hard to say what was happening, but I didn't like the feel. I have
320 MB ram, so normally I can keep a lot of stuff open simultaneously. I don't think it was
a memory problem. IIRC I read/heard that idle runs as separate communicating processes now.
I could see someone being tempted to boost priority somewhere to keep the user experience
tolerably snappy on an older machine. Output like "for i in range(400): print i," is really
slow on mine, compared to the console version.

Not being an idle user (;-) I can't say much more at this point. But given that all I did
was start it up, print a series of numbers and kill it with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D, perhaps you
don't need to work up much of a recipe for duplicating the problem. After the aforementioned,
just trying to start it again brought it on.

As for your subject question, I find the console version quite reliable, and would recommend
using that, along with vim or another editor that suits you. Sorry if this idle UI
bog-down was your first exposure to Python (though it is not Python per se, only a UI).

Regards,
Bengt Richter